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Find family lawyers in Thailand for divorce, child custody and support, marriage registration and adoption. Compare firms and what each route involves.
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Featured firms
International boutique law firm in Bangkok and Phuket, providing legal and tax services to investors, businesses, and private clients across Thailand
฿4,000–12,000 / hour
Bangkok-based law firm delivering strategic, business-focused legal advice with deep local expertise and a practical, solutions-oriented approach.
฿3,500–15,000 / hour
International Legal and Cross-Border Business Advisory in Thailand and Asia
Describe your situation once. Justenda staff can share your inquiry with suitable firms after you confirm your email. No account needed.
Thai family law runs on two tracks, and almost every question a family lawyer answers comes down to which track a case is on.
The first is registration. Marriage, divorce by consent, legitimation of a child, and adoption are all recorded by a registrar at a district office under the Family Registration Act. When both people agree, the district office is the whole process. A divorce by consent is registered on the request of both spouses, and the registrar issues one certificate to each of them without charging a fee.
The second is the court. The moment one person does not agree, the matter moves to a juvenile and family court, and the question changes from "will you sign" to "can you prove a ground". A court judgment annulling a marriage or granting a divorce is then recorded back at the district office, but only once it is final and a certified copy is produced.
A family lawyer's job is mostly about that hinge. Getting an agreement into a form the registrar will accept, or, when there is no agreement, preparing the case the court will need. Cross-border families add a third layer, because documents made abroad have to be legalised and translated before a Thai registrar will look at them.
You need a lawyer when the other person disagrees, when children are involved, or when assets sit in more than one country. Child custody and child support are the two areas where an informal arrangement most often fails later, because what parents agree between themselves is not the same as what a court or a registrar will enforce.
You also want one before you sign anything permanent. A prenuptial agreement only works if it is made and registered correctly at the time of the marriage, and it cannot be reconstructed afterwards.
You probably don't need one for a clean marriage registration where both parties have clean documents, or for a divorce where both spouses agree on everything, have no children, and nothing needs dividing. Those are district office matters, and a lawyer adds cost without adding much.
The situation people most often get wrong is fatherhood. A father who was never married to the mother has no legal relationship with the child in Thai law until legitimation is registered or ordered, whatever the birth certificate says. Custody, support and inheritance all follow from that step, so it is worth getting right early rather than during a dispute.
All firms
International boutique law firm in Bangkok and Phuket, providing legal and tax services to investors, businesses, and private clients across Thailand
฿4,000–12,000 / hour
Bangkok-based law firm delivering strategic, business-focused legal advice with deep local expertise and a practical, solutions-oriented approach.
฿3,500–15,000 / hour
International Legal and Cross-Border Business Advisory in Thailand and Asia
Blumenthal Richter Sumet & Schuler is a leading law firm in Bangkok, Thailand. We provide legal services in all practice areas.
Your trusted legal partner in Thailand
Thai-English speaking law firm in Hua Hin providing family law, business law, real estate, wills, and immigration services.
Experts assisting clients in conducting their businesses and protecting their rights and investments in Thailand across a wide range of legal matters.
Family work is personal, and the practical differences between firms matter more here than in most areas.
Do they act in the court you would actually be in? Contested family matters go to a juvenile and family court. Ask the firm how often they appear there, and in which province. A firm in Bangkok is not automatically the right firm for a case that will be heard in Chiang Mai or Phuket.
Who speaks to you, and in what language? Hearings and registrations are conducted in Thai, and the documents are in Thai. Ask who your day-to-day contact is, whether they give you written English summaries, and who attends the district office or the hearing with you.
How do they handle the other side? Some firms negotiate first and litigate if that fails. Others file quickly. Neither is wrong, but it changes the cost and the temperature of the case, and you should know which one you are hiring.
What is fixed and what is not? A consent divorce registration or an uncontested legitimation is a bounded piece of work most firms will quote as a fixed fee. A contested custody case is not, and any firm quoting a flat fee for one is either guessing or planning to renegotiate.
Two points catch foreign spouses repeatedly.
Documents made outside Thailand need a legalisation chain before a registrar will accept them. A single-status certificate from your home country is certified by that country's foreign ministry and by the Thai Embassy or Consulate-General there, then translated into Thai and certified by the Department of Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A certificate issued by your own embassy inside Thailand still needs the Thai translation and the same consular certification.
Taking a child out of Thailand without the other parent's agreement is not a private decision. Thailand is a member of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, whose conventions cover cross-border child abduction and child adoption, so a child moved or kept across borders can be dealt with through that machinery rather than left to whichever country the child happens to be in. A lawyer can explain how it applies before anyone books a flight.
The official side is cheap. Registering a marriage or a consent divorce produces a certificate for each party at no fee, and the registrar's charges are limited to things like certified copies or registration outside the office. What costs money is disagreement.
Firms listed on Justenda set their own fees. Expect a fixed quote for registration work and uncontested matters, and hourly billing once a case is contested, because the length of a custody or asset dispute is not knowable at the start. Ask what the quote covers, what triggers extra charges, and what happens if the other side changes position.
If protection rather than process is the immediate issue, domestic violence matters are handled under a separate law with its own urgency, and estate questions after a death sit with wills and probate instead. This page is general information, not legal advice. For a specific family situation, speak with a qualified lawyer: the firms below list their languages, locations, and areas of focus.
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